I felt I could have used more sleep as I got ready for our morning drive to Clinton Ontario. Greg and Marianne both signed up for the trip, pushing off at 7:30 AM, driving me first to Clinton Ontario to speak at St. Anne’s Catholic High School and from there to wend our way to Toronto for a different Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton was speaking at the Green Living Show and a lot of Greens were planning to be there. For me it was a chance to see an old friend. As you may have read, I have known the former President since I was a high school student and he was at Yale Law School. I grew up in Connecticut and both my mother and Bill Clinton were early organizers for the McGovern for President Campaign.
So we started driving with excellent “back roads” route in hand from Cathy. From Owen Sound to Kilsyth, shift routes to Ayton. Drew looked big on the map, but it was a collection of houses and a wonderful “Drew Station Post Office,” on to Clifford, to Lakelet and Wingham (Alice Munro country), through Blyth, to Clinton. A bit more than two hours after we set off for one of the more lovely drives I have had in a while, we arrived in Clinton. After my speech to the whole high school (and excellent questions from smart as a whip students), we headed off through Stratford and within three hours were trying to navigate downtown Toronto. (bumper to bumper, not as lovely).
My only time to have a small little chat with the President was at a reception where they clearly did not want people slowing down the well-oiled system of getting a few words and a photo with the man himself. Jim Harris, our illustrious former leader and current campaign chair and his wife Lee-Anne, got their moment and moved along. But me…Slowing down the line for a hug, family updates (which morph into campaign talk -- how else to answer “How’s Hillary?”), and then I have just this little thing “please sign this for my friend”, etc is awkward, but then he wants to talk to me too, so they kind of get stuck letting me have a tad more time.
But what I really wanted to share is his climate work. The Clinton Foundation proved it could move things more than governments in getting retroviral drugs to Africa. With pharmaceutical companies refusing to let HIV-AIDs treatments go to Africa at a reasonable price, millions were at risk. Rather than demonize these companies, the Clinton Foundation started cutting deals. Buy in large volume. Pay up front. Driving down the costs of HIV tests, and of treatment by factors of more than slashed in half, by a quarter. Shift the companies to thinking about profits in a high volume, predictable payment, instead of low volume, high price. Maybe get them to be shamed into a slightly smaller profit margin. And it worked. Now the Foundation is taking the same approach to getting governments, mostly city level, access to cheaper energy efficient technologies.
Bill Clinton is not thought of in the way Al Gore is on the climate front. Both are doing excellent work. But the Clinton Foundation is persistently, steadily and cannily getting the multi-billion dollar backing to get governments to innovate. He not only claims reducing carbon can save money, can make money, he keeps proving it around the world. His turn of phrase hasn’t changed much since when I first knew him. He is an incredible intellect. (Peter Ustinov once said “when one considers George Bush, to be President of the United States, Bill Clinton is a man of unnecessary brilliance.”) He delivered a speech without looking at a note. When he talks about what most people call “low hanging fruit,” all those places where the energy savings are evident and grabbing them cuts carbon and makes money, he says “what we called where I grew up, a birds nest on the ground.”
Worth any number of back roads to hear his update on what can be done and what must be done. Pragmatic, but uncompromising. Someone who has the ability to say, we need the whole system to re-organize to be able to grab these opportunities and get off fossil fuels. And someone with the imagination and clout to make it happen. Taking the back roads to Clinton
April 27, 2008
On Friday I woke up at a friend’s place in Owen Sound after one of the more spectacular Green Party events I have attended. We had a successful fundraising “meet and greet” (50 people at $100 each) and then an open and no charge event which drew so a big crowd that a wall was folded up to expand the room and add another 150 chairs… something on the order of 450 people. We sold 77 memberships and adjourned afterwards to an organizer’s house for a volunteer appreciation celebration. Following the usual hour or so of emails, I headed for bed well after midnight.
I felt I could have used more sleep as I got ready for our morning drive to Clinton Ontario. Greg and Marianne both signed up for the trip, pushing off at 7:30 AM, driving me first to Clinton Ontario to speak at St. Anne’s Catholic High School and from there to wend our way to Toronto for a different Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton was speaking at the Green Living Show and a lot of Greens were planning to be there. For me it was a chance to see an old friend. As you may have read, I have known the former President since I was a high school student and he was at Yale Law School. I grew up in Connecticut and both my mother and Bill Clinton were early organizers for the McGovern for President Campaign.
So we started driving with excellent “back roads” route in hand from Cathy. From Owen Sound to Kilsyth, shift routes to Ayton. Drew looked big on the map, but it was a collection of houses and a wonderful “Drew Station Post Office,” on to Clifford, to Lakelet and Wingham (Alice Munro country), through Blyth, to Clinton. A bit more than two hours after we set off for one of the more lovely drives I have had in a while, we arrived in Clinton. After my speech to the whole high school (and excellent questions from smart as a whip students), we headed off through Stratford and within three hours were trying to navigate downtown Toronto. (bumper to bumper, not as lovely).
My only time to have a small little chat with the President was at a reception where they clearly did not want people slowing down the well-oiled system of getting a few words and a photo with the man himself. Jim Harris, our illustrious former leader and current campaign chair and his wife Lee-Anne, got their moment and moved along. But me…Slowing down the line for a hug, family updates (which morph into campaign talk -- how else to answer “How’s Hillary?”), and then I have just this little thing “please sign this for my friend”, etc is awkward, but then he wants to talk to me too, so they kind of get stuck letting me have a tad more time.
But what I really wanted to share is his climate work. The Clinton Foundation proved it could move things more than governments in getting retroviral drugs to Africa. With pharmaceutical companies refusing to let HIV-AIDs treatments go to Africa at a reasonable price, millions were at risk. Rather than demonize these companies, the Clinton Foundation started cutting deals. Buy in large volume. Pay up front. Driving down the costs of HIV tests, and of treatment by factors of more than slashed in half, by a quarter. Shift the companies to thinking about profits in a high volume, predictable payment, instead of low volume, high price. Maybe get them to be shamed into a slightly smaller profit margin. And it worked. Now the Foundation is taking the same approach to getting governments, mostly city level, access to cheaper energy efficient technologies.
Bill Clinton is not thought of in the way Al Gore is on the climate front. Both are doing excellent work. But the Clinton Foundation is persistently, steadily and cannily getting the multi-billion dollar backing to get governments to innovate. He not only claims reducing carbon can save money, can make money, he keeps proving it around the world. His turn of phrase hasn’t changed much since when I first knew him. He is an incredible intellect. (Peter Ustinov once said “when one considers George Bush, to be President of the United States, Bill Clinton is a man of unnecessary brilliance.”) He delivered a speech without looking at a note. When he talks about what most people call “low hanging fruit,” all those places where the energy savings are evident and grabbing them cuts carbon and makes money, he says “what we called where I grew up, a birds nest on the ground.”
Worth any number of back roads to hear his update on what can be done and what must be done. Pragmatic, but uncompromising. Someone who has the ability to say, we need the whole system to re-organize to be able to grab these opportunities and get off fossil fuels. And someone with the imagination and clout to make it happen.
I felt I could have used more sleep as I got ready for our morning drive to Clinton Ontario. Greg and Marianne both signed up for the trip, pushing off at 7:30 AM, driving me first to Clinton Ontario to speak at St. Anne’s Catholic High School and from there to wend our way to Toronto for a different Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton was speaking at the Green Living Show and a lot of Greens were planning to be there. For me it was a chance to see an old friend. As you may have read, I have known the former President since I was a high school student and he was at Yale Law School. I grew up in Connecticut and both my mother and Bill Clinton were early organizers for the McGovern for President Campaign.
So we started driving with excellent “back roads” route in hand from Cathy. From Owen Sound to Kilsyth, shift routes to Ayton. Drew looked big on the map, but it was a collection of houses and a wonderful “Drew Station Post Office,” on to Clifford, to Lakelet and Wingham (Alice Munro country), through Blyth, to Clinton. A bit more than two hours after we set off for one of the more lovely drives I have had in a while, we arrived in Clinton. After my speech to the whole high school (and excellent questions from smart as a whip students), we headed off through Stratford and within three hours were trying to navigate downtown Toronto. (bumper to bumper, not as lovely).
My only time to have a small little chat with the President was at a reception where they clearly did not want people slowing down the well-oiled system of getting a few words and a photo with the man himself. Jim Harris, our illustrious former leader and current campaign chair and his wife Lee-Anne, got their moment and moved along. But me…Slowing down the line for a hug, family updates (which morph into campaign talk -- how else to answer “How’s Hillary?”), and then I have just this little thing “please sign this for my friend”, etc is awkward, but then he wants to talk to me too, so they kind of get stuck letting me have a tad more time.
But what I really wanted to share is his climate work. The Clinton Foundation proved it could move things more than governments in getting retroviral drugs to Africa. With pharmaceutical companies refusing to let HIV-AIDs treatments go to Africa at a reasonable price, millions were at risk. Rather than demonize these companies, the Clinton Foundation started cutting deals. Buy in large volume. Pay up front. Driving down the costs of HIV tests, and of treatment by factors of more than slashed in half, by a quarter. Shift the companies to thinking about profits in a high volume, predictable payment, instead of low volume, high price. Maybe get them to be shamed into a slightly smaller profit margin. And it worked. Now the Foundation is taking the same approach to getting governments, mostly city level, access to cheaper energy efficient technologies.
Bill Clinton is not thought of in the way Al Gore is on the climate front. Both are doing excellent work. But the Clinton Foundation is persistently, steadily and cannily getting the multi-billion dollar backing to get governments to innovate. He not only claims reducing carbon can save money, can make money, he keeps proving it around the world. His turn of phrase hasn’t changed much since when I first knew him. He is an incredible intellect. (Peter Ustinov once said “when one considers George Bush, to be President of the United States, Bill Clinton is a man of unnecessary brilliance.”) He delivered a speech without looking at a note. When he talks about what most people call “low hanging fruit,” all those places where the energy savings are evident and grabbing them cuts carbon and makes money, he says “what we called where I grew up, a birds nest on the ground.”
Worth any number of back roads to hear his update on what can be done and what must be done. Pragmatic, but uncompromising. Someone who has the ability to say, we need the whole system to re-organize to be able to grab these opportunities and get off fossil fuels. And someone with the imagination and clout to make it happen.